My friend Jerry and I bought tickets for the Tica Bus from Managaua, Nicaragua through Honduras and into San Salvador, El Salvador.  We decided to stay at a hostel near the bus station since the bus leaves so early.  We arrived a the hostel and found the name was changed and the host was pissing in front of the hostel.  We decided to not stay there and walk a couple blocks to check out the only other hostel we knew of near by.  We arrived to find a large black gate completely shut.  Our hearts sank.  It must be closed.  I was so glad when the host opened the gate for us and welcomed us inside.  Apparently bus stations attract a lot of crime, and this station attracts more than the usual amount.  The heightened security here made it look closed, but I was thankful for it.  This was definitely not a neighborhood that we could explore, but we enjoyed relaxing in Pandora Hostel.  They served beer at a fair price and had an awesome lounge complete with a large flat screen TV and shishas.  We turned in early to prep for the next day.  

At 4:15AM, we walked with the other hostel residents to the bus station– safety in numbers.  We didn’t get mugged, but the bus driver did try to hustle us.  He tried to get us both to pay $20 because we didn’t have proof of our yellow fever vaccination.  After firmly refusing for several minutes, he shrugged his shoulders and let us on the bus.  The border crossings in and out of Honduras went smoothly and nobody asked us about yellow fever vaccination.

The bus arrived in San Salvador at dusk.  Not ideal due to safety concerns, but since the bus left at 5AM, it would have been difficult to get there much earlier.  We got off at the bus stop before arriving at the final stop in the city center. The city center is definitely NOT a place for white people to hang around at night.  We exited the bus in Zona Rosa which is considered one of the highlights of the city.  There were a few men offering us “taxi” rides.  But they were just regular cars without taxi plates or numbers on the side of the car.  We opted to stop in and talk with the hostel across the street and see if they could call a cab for us.  They reassured us that the men across the street were safe to take rides from.  Trusting their advice, we got in one of the “cabs”, but two minutes into the ride Jerry realized he forgot his electric toothbrush on the bus.  He decided to have the cab driver take us to the seedy bus station in the center of San Salvador after dark.  My thoughts were “F@$K your toothbrush, I like my life.”  But Jerrry loves that toothbrush, so off we went into the city center.  The neighborhood gradually got more questionable, and the cab driver rolled up the windows and locked the doors.  I appreciated this, but I wished that the windows were more tinted so the locals couldn’t see that there were extranjeros inside.  We arrived at the bus station with a steel gate and an armed guard in front.  Men loitered about the street.  They eyed the car when my white friend got out of it, and I sunk a little lower in my seat.  Thankfully, Jerry was back in a flash with his toothbrush, and I was thrilled to finally be on my way to a safe hostel in a good neighborhood.
We arrived at Cumbres del Volcan and happily walked through the front gate and into a beautiful garden.  It was nice to find a safe haven after a long travel day.  We dropped off our bags then sheepishly inquired if there was anywhere safe  we could walk to get dinner.  The host assured us that this neighborhood was safe and directed us to walk up the hill a few blocks to a plaza.  It was a food plaza attached to the trade center building.  The trade building was modern and beautiful.  It towered above the rest of the buildings in the neighborhood.  It had rings of rainbow lights that rotated up and down the edifice.   There were armed guards at every entrance to the plaza, and inside, we found a pristine environment.  Not a bit of trash or dirt in sight.  Any cuisine you could think of was available from buffalo wings to sushi.  I don’t normally like to eat in a sterile, chain-restaurant area, but it was an easy way to ease myself into San Salvador.  It was good to know that there was a safe and quiet nieghborhood for me to be in.  I certainly wanted to see a little more local culture the next day, but that night, tapas and a glass of wine served me well.

We walked back to the hostel feeling refreshed after a good meal, but we began to feel unsettled.  There weren’t any shady characters about, but there was absolutely nobody outside.  The armed guards had retired for the evening, and we didn’t see a single person the entire walk back .  We noticed the multiple layers of barbed wire on every building.  Jerry excitedly pointed at a modern, beautiful building and said, “The new building on the block doesn’t have any barbed wire.”  We felt reassured and took this as a sign of successful gentrification.  But then we realized that there was no barbed wire because there wasn’t a single window in the building.  We laughed at our moment of naivety, and decided to walk back to our safe little hostel without further delay.  We could continue exploring the next day when we had the comfort of daylight and crowds of people.